LEGENDARY CAR GUY CALLS *LE MANS* – PORSCHE WILL WIN

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For first time in recent memory, three marques have a shot at the LMP1 title. Audi of course, but also Porsche who topped time sheets during tests, and Toyota who is in year 3 of hammering at the door. Gosh darn, wish we could vote Nissan for their eccentricity.

But there are Porschean forces…

Top contenders in 2015 Le Mans…

Let’s set the stage. On June 13-14, somewhere in France (2 hours southwest of Paris), there will be the 83rd running of the premier endurance event in the galaxy. The 8+ miles of track is composed of closed public roads, augmented by a specialist racing circuit designed to make things even tougher. Here’s an Everything U Wanted to Know but Fast.

Teams race for 24 continuous hours. Each team/car travels further in 24 hours than an F1 car in an entire season. If like Mark Webber on the Porsche team, you’re more than 6ft tall, you sit reclined with your knees clamped to your chest and peer out through a tiny slot of a windscreen. For 3 hours at a stretch (no pun intended).

Toyota has a shot! It’s been 30 years of futility at Le Mans, but were winners of the 2014 driver and constructor double title crown in the series.

Audi has won the last five races. And they recently won over Porsche at Spa, the logical precursor to Le Mans 24 Hours.

There are three Porsches in the line-up for Le Mans this year. Porsche has won 16 Le Mans trophies since 1970 although Audi is threatening with 13.

The first Porsche victory, in 1970, was won with the famous 917, which appeared in the following year’s Le Mans film, starring Steve McQueen. The last victory was in 1998 with the 911 GT1. Porsche then backed away from the top tier of racing, concentrating instead on lower divisions. What was on their mind?

Not given a great deal of chance is Nissan and their quixotic design. New to Le Mans, their car is front wheel drive, with massive front wheels, tiny rear wheels and long fin. Sam Smith writing for Wired, likens the design of the GT-R LM Nismo race car to the Tim Burton Batmobile. Clearly rooting for its idiosyncratic approach, he calls the car “a much needed dose of insanity.”